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Courts and Crime

A Big Island woman who pleaded guilty to 13 felony embezzlement charges during a hearing in Bedford County Circuit Court in 2008, will now face additional jail time stemming from those charges following a probation violation conviction.
Christina Carmichael Poore originally faced 27 embezzlement charges that spanned a time period between July 1, 2005, and Dec. 1, 2007. In each charge she was accused of embezzling more than $200 from H & H Food Market off Lee Jackson Highway.

A Bedford County man will spend 20 years in prison for sexual solicitation of a minor on a computer.
William Ramsey Rogers, 38, thought he was chatting with a 13-year-old girl on his computer, but it actually turned out to be an investigator with the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children task force.
Rogers had previously pleaded no contest to four solicitation charges and was sentenced last Tuesday on the convictions.

A 28-year-old Bedford woman, upset because she felt the father of her child was not taking care of the child, tied an extension chord around the child’s neck, took a picture, and sent the photo to the child’s father.
That action led the woman, Charitye Tanner, to be charged with child endangerment. She pleaded guilty to that charge last Tuesday in Circuit Court and received a four-year suspended sentence.

A Lynchburg man will spend 10 years in prison as part of a plea agreement involving the robbery at a Quik-E Store in Forest last year.
James Robert Wilson, 34, pleaded guilty last Tuesday to the robbery charge, receiving a 20-year sentence, with 10 years to serve.
According to Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Wheelock, Wilson had some prior burglary and fraud offenses.

The body of a Lynchburg man who died in an automobile accident last August will be exhumed to determine the actual cause of death.
James Dale Gunter, 53, died in a wreck Aug. 18, 2013, on US 501 near the Eagle Eyrie Baptist Convention Center in Bedford County when the car he was a passenger in overturned. The driver of the vehicle, Steve Malotey Oulds III, also of Lynchburg, is charged with DUI, a misdemeanor, and involuntary manslaughter, a felony, as a result of the accident.

A Bedford woman will spend 60 days in jail after pleading guilty to two felony counts of child neglect during a hearing in Bedford County Circuit Court Jan. 10.
Catherine Nicole Jackson, 24, entered the guilty pleas for a Sept. 5, 2013, incident in which police were called to investigate two children left in a car alone at Wal-Mart. Jackson was stopped by law enforcement on Forest Road.

A Bedford man with a history of charges of setting fires has been indicted by a Bedford grand jury for allegedly setting fire to his mother’s home in May.

The January grand jury returned a total of 41 indictments against 19 different defendants.
Darrell Bruce Orange, 53, faces an arson charge for a fire at a residence at 1071 Murray Hollow Road in Thaxton. He lived in the residence with his mother. He has been in jail without bond since being arrested.

William Ramsey Rogers, 38, of Lynchburg, will spend the next 20 years in prison for sexual solicitation via his computer of a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

He pleaded no contest late last year to four solicitation charges. The charges stemmed from contact with a Internet Crimes Against Children investigator, portraying a 13-year-old girl on the Internet. During these chats, Rogers also used a web camera to expose himself to the investigator and masturbate in front of a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

A 19-year-old Moneta man, who has maintained his innocence since being arrested, will spend two years in prison for having sexual contact with a minor girl under the age of 13 years old.
But the attorney for Howard Jamar Witcher stated during a sentencing hearing Tuesday that he plans to appeal the conviction.